THE DEMOCRATS IN ATLANTA

THE DEMOCRATS IN ATLANTA; JACKSON ROUSES DEMOCRATS WITH PLEA FOR HOPE, SAYING 'TONIGHT I SALUTE' DUKAKIS

By E. J. DIONNE Jr., Special to the New York Times

Published: July 20, 1988

ATLANTA, July 19—
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who only a few days ago spoke of Michael S. Dukakis with irritation and impatience, tonight offered the valedictory oration of his 1988 pursuit of the Presidency and lavished praise on the prospective Democratic nominee.

In remarks to the Democratic National Convention that reflected a newfound sense of unity within the party, Mr. Jackson, given a rousing reception by the delegates, saluted his onetime rival for the nomination as a man with ''a good mind'' who throughout the primary campaign ''never stooped to demagoguery.''

Mr. Jackson's speech came several hours after Mr. Dukakis had demonstrated his firm control over the convention: his delegates easily beat back Mr. Jackson's efforts to make the platform more liberal with promises to tax the rich and to keep the United States from being the first nation to strike with nuclear weapons. Third Plank Withdrawn

The delegates at the Omni Coliseum here defeated those proposed planks by margins of more than 2 to 1. A third plank that Mr. Jackson had sought, calling for Palestinian self-determination, was debated on the floor but was never brought to a vote, a result of an arrangement between the Dukakis and Jackson camps over an especially controversial proposal.

With that business concluded, the late evening belonged to Mr. Jackson, whose address and the emotions it stirred lent support to his assertion that his public life would have future chapters.

Mr. Jackson brought hundreds in the crowd to tears with an address that was by turns angry, gentle and deeply personal. [ Excerpts, page A18. ] 'Working Person's Person'

He issued the same ringing calls for social justice that he had carried to farms sold off in foreclosure and to the factory gates of industrial towns. ''I am a working person's person,'' he said, speaking out also on behalf of hospital workers ''who wipe the fevered bodies of the sick'' but who cannot themselves ''lie in the bed they make up every day.''

Many eyes not yet damp did brim when Mr. Jackson described the poverty of his youth. He said those watching him on television in poor neighborhoods across the nation should know that he understood their plight. ''They don't see the house I'm running from,'' he said. ''I have a story. I wasn't always on television.'' As for his onetime rival, Mr. Jackson said:

''Tonight I salute Gov. Michael Dukakis. He ran a well-managed, dignified campaign. No matter how tired or how tried, he never stooped to demagoguery.

''I have watched a good mind, fast at work, with steel nerves, guiding his campaign out of the crowded field without appeal to the worst in us. I have watched his perspective grow as his environment expanded.'' 'Never Surrender'

Mr. Jackson, who once spoke the words ''never surrender'' in defiance of the man the Democrats will nominate for President on Wednesday night, turned the phrase tonight into a battle cry for Mr. Dukakis's fall campaign against the Republicans.

Mr. Jackson was presented to the convention by his five children: Santita, 25 years old; Jesse Jr., 23; Jonathan, 22; Yusef, 17, and Jacqueline, 12. The last of them to speak was Jesse Jr., who, as the lights went out and a film about Mr. Jackson came up on the convention screen, introduced ''a man who fights against the odds, who lives against the odds, our dad, Jesse Jackson.''

Mr. Jackson appeared at the rostrum as hundreds of bright red Jackson banners waved in the audience to the strains of ''America the Beautiful.'' When the band broke into ''Stars and Stripes Forever.'' Mr. Jackson pumped his fist in the air three times and then gave a thumbs-up gesture.

As the cheers swelled, he brought out Rosa Parks, the now-frail woman who three decades ago set off a civil rights struggle in Montgomery, Ala., by refusing to sit in the back of a bus. A Fitting Allegory

And so the day's developments seemed a fitting allegory for the long struggle for political power between the civil rights leader from Chicago and the Governor from Massachusetts: while Mr. Jackson, in tonight's speech, continued his effort to rouse the party's emotions and moral fervor, Mr. Dukakis, in the platform struggle, continued demonstrating his ability to manage political events.

Even as the liberal platform planks were being beaten, though, the delegates were taking time to celebrate two of the party's enduring liberal heroes: Senator Edward M. Kennedy and former House Speaker Thomas P. O'Neill Jr., two sons of Mr. Dukakis's native Massachusetts.

In a speech to the convention tonight, Mr. Kennedy blended the words of two leaders assassinated 20 years ago: his brother Robert and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ''If they were with us, two decades later, I think we know what they would say,'' the Senator declared. ''Now is the time. Some men see things as they are and ask why. We dream things that never were and say why not. Now is the time.''